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Chapter-a-Day, Uncategorized

Focus

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Focus (CaD 1 Chr 8) – Wayfarer

Ner was the father of Kish, Kish the father of Saul, and Saul the father of Jonathan, Malki-Shua, Abinadab and Esh-Baal.
1 Chronicles 8:33 (NIV)

I often get asked if I play golf. Our house sits nestled in a neighborhood on a golf course with the clubhouse just a couple of blocks away, so it’s a natural question for people to ask. My answer is that I’m a once-a-year charity best-ball tournament golfer. My goal in this once-a-year charity best ball tournament is to have ONE of my shots over 18 holes be the “best ball” of our foursome. If I do that. I consider it a win.

I do know a lot of people who are avid golfers, and I know it can be addicting for some people. Along my life journey, I’ve met a person or two who were obsessed. It was all they talked about and it was where all of their time and money went. I remember one person whose marriage was on the rocks because his wife considered herself a “golf widow.” Yikes!

I’ve observed along life’s road that you can tell a lot about a person by observing where they invest their time and energy, and what they like to talk about.

In today’s chapter, the Chronicler turns his genealogical focus on the Hebrew tribe of Benjamin. What’s odd about this is that he already listed the tribe of Benjamin in yesterday’s chapter seven (7:6-12) squeezed between the tribes of Issachar and Naphtali. Now he circles back to give a much more extensive look at Benjamin. Why?

The Chronicler is sitting in the rebuilt Jerusalem where the rebuilt Temple stands. He is among many former citizens of the southern kingdom of Judah who have returned from exile in Babylon. As he writes this retrospective history of his people, he is trying to make sense of where he and his people stand at this moment of their Great Story and their relationship with God. We learn a lot about where his mind is focused based on where he spends his genealogical time and energy.

For example, the Chronicler chose to begin his vast genealogical research focused on the tribe of Judah, even though Judah was the fourth oldest of Jacob’s sons. Judah was the largest tribe, made up the majority of the southern kingdom of Judah, and was the tribe from which King David came. He now focuses on Benjamin because when the kingdom split into the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, the tribe of Benjamin stuck with Judah. It was from the tribe of Benjamin that Israel’s first king, Saul, emerged as well as Saul’s son Jonathan who played a large role in David’s story as David’s best friend. Many of the exiles returning from Babylon were from the tribe of Benjamin, perhaps even the Chronicler himself.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself meditating on focus. I’m not an obsessed golfer, but that’s not to say I don’t have other obsessions. I still make daily choices about where I spend my time, attention, and resources. What are they? What do they reflect about me and my life priorities?

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Peace That’s Not of this World

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Peace that's Not of this World (CaD Jhn 14) – Wayfarer

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”
John 14:27 (NIV)

Judas Iscariot is in the process of his betrayal of Jesus. The wheels are in motion and the climactic event that Jesus has clearly stated is about to take place. Jesus knows that He will be arrested, He will suffer, and He will be executed. The religious leaders and the Romans? They’re just the pawns. What’s about to happen is the result of a larger spiritual conflict that has been brewing since before the beginning. As Jesus finishes His last meal with the disciples and prepares, He even says to His disciples, “The Prince of this World is coming.”

I find it fascinating that amid these impending events, Jesus declares that He has peace. In fact, He has enough peace that He will generously give it to His disciples. He also clarifies that His peace is not “as the world gives.”

This got me meditating in the quiet this morning about how I’ve observed the world offering peace.

I watch politicians on both sides screaming of the aisle that their side is the only path to peace and prosperity. The other side will bring only death, destruction, and the end of democracy. So both sides claim they will bring peace if the other side is obliterated, subjugated, and goes away. Peace comes only through the absolute and total destruction of your political enemies.

Last October, a group of terrorists tortured, raped, and slaughtered 1200 human beings. They took others hostage. I’ve been told that this all happened to bring peace to one group of people and will be achieved if the other group of people they terrorized are wiped off the face of the earth. Both groups continue to kill one another to achieve peace.

When I was a young man, it seemed that the world promised peace if you had certain things. Those things could be tangible like money, cars, designer gear, etc. They could also be intangibles like success, popularity, fame, status, and power. This is still the Prince of the World’s game. In fact, it fuels our economy and continues our seemingly endless need for more. If I just add that thing everyone’s talking about to my pile of personal possessions I’d probably feel so content as to never needing another thing.

In my lifetime, I’ve observed that the world’s promise of peace has gotten more insidious with its intangible paths to inner peace. Thanks to social media, the world convinces children and their parents that peace will be yours if you have followers and likes, or because you have a sudden case of Tourette’s or gender dysphoria that makes you special. Peace is promised for the latter at the end of hormones, drugs, and life-altering surgeries.

Jesus promised peace that is spiritual in nature. He said it would come with spiritual oneness that happens when I surrender, follow, believe, and obey. Jesus promises His Spirit to indwell me. That’s the source of the peace. The following, believing, and obeying are rooted in His teaching that there really is something much larger going on in my life in the same way there was something larger going on in the events of His arrest. If He is in me, and I am following His teaching, there is peace that comes with His presence and with seeing the larger, spiritual, eternal perspective which allows me to view my momentary troubles in a very different way.

Peace, my friend.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

No Signs Needed

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No Sign Needed (CaD Jhn 4) – Wayfarer

And because of [Jesus’] words many more became believers.
John 4:41 (NIV)

For the past four months, since the heinous events of October 7, 2023, the headlines have been dominated by the intense conflict between the terrorists of Hamas and Israel. We have seen heated and sometimes violent demonstrations around the world. We have witnessed the impassioned feelings on both sides of the conflict. What many fail to understand is that the conflict between people groups in this region can be traced back thousands of years. They were as real for people in Jesus’ day as they are today.

In the first three chapters of John’s version of Jesus’ story, he has made a point of the “signs,” or miracles, that Jesus performed. He went on to describe the religious leaders for whom no “sign” was good enough as they demanded a bigger, better, more magnificent miracle, while the crowds who saw Jesus’ miracles/signs at the Temple during the Passover festival believed because of them.

For the largely Jewish audience that John was addressing when he wrote his account, today’s chapter takes a shocking twist. Jesus leaves the region near Jerusalem and heads back north to His home region of Galilee. To get from one to the other in a straight line, Jesus had to travel through a region called Samaria. This was an issue.

The people in the Samaritan region were Jews who hundreds of years before Jesus had intermarried with non-Jewish inhabitants during the time when the northern kingdom had been taken into exile by Assyria. To Jesus’ people, the Samaritans were half-breeds (or mud-bloods if you’re into the whole Harry Potter nomenclature). Good Jews would walk miles out of their way to avoid walking through Samaria. I can’t help but think about the delineations drawn today between Israel and Palestinian regions and the antipathy between them. Jesus was like a Jew walking into and through Gaza or the West Bank.

Jesus not only leads His disciples directly through Samaria, but He strikes up a conversation with a Samaritan woman. It was socially unacceptable for a Jewish man of Jesus’ day to speak to any woman in public. Jesus strikes up a conversation with a Samaritan woman. If Jesus was playing poker with the cultural rules of His day, His conversation with the Samaritan woman was Him going “all in.”

I find it fascinating that John shares this episode so early in his version of Jesus’ story. John’s audience was well aware that the Jesus movement had torn down traditional social and cultural distinctions between men and women, Jews and non-Jews, along with slaves and slave owners. In writing about Jesus’ conversation with the Samaritan woman, their two-day stay with the Samaritans there, and the Samaritans’ belief in Jesus, John was providing his readers with the reason that Jesus’ followers were so revolutionary in crossing such entrenched social mores. It’s what Jesus did Himself, and the example Jesus commanded them to follow.

As I meditated on this in the quiet this morning, I couldn’t fail to notice one small detail that I find of profound importance. John has already established how important Jesus’ “signs” and miracles were in leading His Jewish audience to believe in Him. When it came to the Samaritan woman and her people, there were no miracles worked. There was no “sign.” Instead, John specifically states that these socially unacceptable half-breed deplorables believed Jesus simply at His word.

I’m reminded this morning that as much as the world has changed since Jesus’ two-day stay in Samaria, the human condition hasn’t changed. People groups still hate one another with generationally perpetuated hard hearts and homicidal intensity. Individuals still seek “signs” from God as a prerequisite to belief. I find in the despised Samaritans an example I hope I emulate every day on this chapter-a-day journey: Simply taking Jesus at His word without the need for any other signs.

I couldn’t help but think of the episode John will share in the final chapters of his account. The risen Jesus invites Thomas to touch His wounds and verify that it was really Him. After Thomas proclaims his belief, Jesus responds “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

God, make me less like Doubting Thomas and more like the Samaritans.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Was, Is, & Will Be

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Was, Is, & Will Be (CaD Am 9) – Wayfarer

“New wine will drip from the mountains
    and flow from all the hills,
    and I will bring my people Israel back from exile”
Amos 9:13 (NIV)

In John’s Revelation, God is repeatedly referred to the One “who was, and is, and is to come.” The fascinating thing about this phrase being used repeatedly inside a work of apocalyptic literature is that the words of the prophets are layered with meaning, referencing things that were in the past, events that were imminently current, and events that were yet to be in the future. The words of the prophets are not so much “either it means this, or it means that,” but rather “Yes, it means this and it means that.”

I didn’t plan this quick trek through the ancient prophet Amos because of the current events unfolding in the middle east between Israel and Hamas. That said, I have found it virtually impossible not to read the ancient words of the prophet Amos in context of these current events.

In today’s final chapter, God through Amos boldly predicts that disaster is going to fall on the people of Israel. He says that many will die, but then says, “I will shake the people of Israel among the nations.” The chapter ends with a vision of restoration in which the nation is rebuilt and prosper. So let me unpack my thoughts based on “what was, what is, and what is to come.”

What was…

Exile is a perpetual theme throughout the Great Story. In fact, some scholars say that it is the pre-eminent theme of the entire thing. It’s first revealed in Genesis 3 when Adam and Eve sin and are cast out of the Garden of Eden into a sinful world. The rest of the Story is about humanity finding itself back in the Garden with God in the final chapters of Revelation. God calls Abram away from his home and into exile in a land God would show him. Abram’s grandson and great-grandchildren would find themselves living in exile in Egypt, where they will be enslaved for hundreds of years.

I could go on to discuss the theme of exile in the life of Jesus, the Acts of the Apostles, and the book of Revelation, but for now, let me stick to the fact exile was already an established theme of “what was” in the days our blue-collar prophet Amos was preaching to the people of ancient Israel.

What is…

The world at the time of Amos is primed for an extended period of history in which a succession of human empires will rise to control large portions of the western world. The land of Israel and Judah are nestled in a strategic crossroads between Persia, Europe, Arabia, and Africa. Any empire wanting to expand into those areas must go through the lands of the Hebrew people.

Just as Amos is prophesying exile to the northern kingdom of Israel, his prophetic successors to the south will soon begin to predict the same fate for the Hebrew people in Judah.

And, that’s exactly how it played out. It begins with the Assyrian empire who will conquer Israel (but not Judah) about 30 years after Amos’ proclaimed it. The Assyrian empire gave way to the Babylonian empire who conquered Judah and carried the likes of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Nehemiah into exile in Babylon. The Babylonians were conquered by the Medes and Persians, the Persians by the Greeks, and the Greeks by the Romans.

What is to come…

This is where things get really interesting, because the promises of restoration are layered with meaning that will only be revealed as future events play out.

First, there is a remnant of Hebrews who returns to the land during the Persian empire and rebuild Jerusalem and the temple there. That story is told by Nehemiah and Ezra.

As part of the description of restoration, Amos states that “new wine will drip from the mountains.” For any follower of Jesus, this echoes the very words of Jesus when He said that His teaching was “new wine” that won’t work in “old wineskins.” Jesus predicted a bold new era in which Jerusalem would be destroyed and God’s kingdom would expand to include peoples of every tribe, nation, and language. Jerusalem and the temple was destroyed by the Romans in 70 A.D. and over the coming centuries the Hebrew people would be scattered among the nations.

Then, of course, we fast-forward to 1948, when the contemporary state of Israel was established by the British and the United Nations. From around the world, Hebrews returned from twenty centuries of exile to live in the very land where Amos prophesied almost three thousand years before.

And, that’s where I find myself sitting with wonder in the quiet this morning. What does this all mean? I’m not entirely sure. There are a lot of modern day would-be prophets who will confidently sell you their books and tell you exactly how the prophecies in the Great Story will play out. They’re always wrong. Jesus Himself said that He didn’t know the day and the hour of the events “yet to come.” Personally, I embrace that as an indicator I should humbly plead the same ignorance and rest comfortably being in Jesus’ good company.

And yet, the connection of what was, and what is leads me to believe that there is more to all of it than mere historical coincidence. It leads me to believe that everything, somehow, is playing out in relation to that what Jesus and the prophets envisioned as that which is yet to come. There is a Great Story being told. In the grand design that Paul described as “all things working together” I and my story are part of that Story.

How?

Someday I will know. That’s yet to come.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Lessons Then and Now

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Lessons Then and Now (CaD Am 6) – Wayfarer

You put off the day of disaster
    and bring near a reign of terror.
Amos 6:3 (NIV)

It was an all-night music festival and make-shift campground. Hundreds of young people gathered to have fun and dance through the whole night. Suddenly, the electricity was cut. Stage lights and music became instant silence and darkness. Then the bullets from Hamas terrorists started firing indiscriminately into the crowd. By the time the massacre was over, some 260 young people lay dead.

In the aftermath of the October 7 terrorist attacks, one of the predominate themes coming out of Israel was the complete and utter surprise. The government and army were unprepared. They didn’t see it coming. “We failed,” one official said matter-of-factly to the press, offering no elucidation.

As I continue my chapter-a-day trek through the ancient prophecies of Amos, I can’t help but think of the eery parallels with current events.

In today’s chapter, Amos describes the people of ancient Israel feasting, drinking, and partying to music. He then contrasts this with a prophecy of sudden terror and destruction that will come when another nation attacks. He describes a house full of dead bodies and a family member hiding among the corpses in fear of his life. Amos calls out ancient Israel’s complacency and pride lulling them into a false sense of security. The description reads like a description of the October 7 massacre and aftermath.

This morning, I sit in the quiet and ponder similar events both ancient and contemporary. What are my take aways?

The first thing I thing about is a warning against complacency. Ancient Israel was enjoying a boom of prosperity that was rooted in greed, corruption, and idolatry. Things were great in the moment for the fortunate and affluent. They didn’t want to listen to Amos’ words of warning. In similar ways, the U.S. before 9/11 and Israel before October 7, were not prepared for the instantaneous terror that was unleashed. How do I keep my mind and spirit honed to the realities of evil and hatred, and not get lulled into a false sense of security?

The second take away for me is the spiritual rot that lay at the root of Amos’ prophetic messages. God, through Amos, is begging for people to repent of their greed, their lack of concern for the poor and needy, and the self-centered rigging of systems to pad their pockets and get away with corruption at the expense of others. As a disciple of Jesus, how do I daily live true to the virtues of charity, generosity, compassion, and contentment in a world that teaches looking out for numero uno?

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

“The More Things Change…”

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"The More Things Change…" (CaD Am 1) – Wayfarer

“The Lord roars from Zion
    and thunders from Jerusalem…”
Amos 1:2 (NIV)

It was a time of incredible prosperity and affluence for the kingdoms of Israel and Judah when God called Amos to proclaim his message. Amos was not a noble member of the court like Isaiah. He didn’t hail from blue-blood priestly families like Jeremiah or Ezekiel. Amos was a blue-collared common man. He was a shepherd. He worked with his hands harvesting figs to make ends meet.

What Amos sees around him is that the rich get rich off by oppressing the poor. The powerful use corruption to keep themselves in power. The weak don’t stand a chance. And it’s not just the northern kingdom of Israel or the southern kingdom of Judah. It’s everyone in the region. At the feet of the powerful and wealthy lies hatred, human trafficking, violence, genocide, greed.

So God gives Amos a message. The Lion of Judah is about to roar.

As I read today’s first chapter of the prophet Amos’ message, I couldn’t believe how relevant it felt to today. Just a week and a half ago, the terrorist group, Hamas, brutally attacked Jewish communities just outside of Gaza. Screaming words of hatred, women and children were killed. Babies were cut from their mother’s wombs. Infants were beheaded. Families were kidnapped. A girl was raped next to the body of her dead friends.

Amos’ opening message addresses the kingdoms surrounding Israel and Judah, including Gaza which was Philistine territory in that day. God through Amos, describes their behavior that has stoked His anger. It seemed to me that it came right from this past week’s news:

“…she took captive whole communities.” (vs. 6)
“…she sold whole communities of captives to Edom disregarding a treaty of brotherhood.” (vs. 9)
“..he slaughtered the women of the land.” (vs. 10)
“..his anger raged continually and his fury flamed unchecked.” (vs. 10)
“…he ripped open the pregnant women in order to extend his borders.” (vs. 13)
“I will send fire on the walls of Gaza that will consume her fortresses.” (vs. 7)

Amazing.

As I read today’s chapter in the quiet this morning, I couldn’t help but think of the prophet Amos as an Oliver Anthony of his day belting out his own version of Rich Men North of Richmond. Amos sees the same things in his day that Oliver Anthony sings about from his perspective today. There are double standards. The rich get richer by oppressing the poor. Corruption flourishes and the powerful get away with their crimes. As Bob Dylan sang, “You know the Golden Rule? The one who’s got the gold rules.”

The more things change, the more they stay the same. History changes. Technology changes. Knowledge increases. Yet, the human condition remains the same. We need justice today as much as humanity has ever needed it. So, I’m anxious to hear the cries of the blue-collared working man’s prophet, Amos in the days ahead. If the human condition and the circumstances haven’t changed all that much since his day, and it appears that they haven’t, then I think he just might have something relevant for me, my life, and my times.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Bad Blood

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Bad Blood (CaD Jer 49) – Wayfarer

“But I will strip Esau bare;
    I will uncover his hiding places,
    so that he cannot conceal himself…”
Jeremiah 49:10a (NIV)

If you’ve followed my writing or my social media posts for any length of time, you’ll know that I’m my family’s resident historian. In fact, right next to my desk is a stack of letters, photographs, and ephemera that my dad gave me. They were keepsakes my mother had in her possession when she died a few months ago.

Family is an interesting thing, and what’s ironic in my self-appointed role of family historian is that neither my maternal nor paternal families are particularly close. I can at least say that my maternal family has had a number of reunions that I can remember over the years, though it’s been quite a while since the last one. My paternal family has never had a reunion. Were it not for Facebook, I’d probably not have any meaningful connection to them.

“Blood is thicker than water” is the idiom we use to express the importance of family over everything else in life. But I’ve equally observed that bad blood runs deep. Along my life journey, I have observed a number of families in which bad blood ran so deep that it divided siblings and cousins for generations until no one knew why their family was so distant and never spoke to one another.

Today’s chapter is the continuation of short, one-off prophetic messages that the prophet Jeremiah gave during his career. There are five short messages in today’s chapter aimed at small towns and people groups in the region. The one that resonated with me as I read it was God’s message to the Edomites, whom the prophet refers to as “Esau.”

The Edomites were descendants of Isaac’s son, Esau, who was also known as Edom.

The Israelites were descendants of Isaac’s son, Jacob, who became known as Israel.

Jacob and Esau were brothers. They were twin brothers. Their story is told all the way back in Genesis. Esau foolishly sold his birthright as the eldest male child to his younger twin brother for some soup. Jacob then deceived his own dying father to give him the blessing of the eldest child. Esau fled to the east of the Dead Sea and took up residence in a mountainous region known for it’s cliffs and caves.

Today’s chapter and Jeremiah’s message takes place about a thousand years later. The descendants of Esau and the descendants of Jacob have been feuding for a millenium.

Bad blood runs deep.

That simple fact is what I found myself mulling over in the quiet this morning. It’s tragic when family become sworn enemies. It’s even more tragic when later generations continue feuding after the original grievances are long-since forgotten.

When Jesus said that His followers were to love our enemies and pray for those who persecute us, there was no exemption made for feuding family members. Bad blood may very well make them the most difficult enemies to forgive, love, and bless.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Faith-less or Un-faithful?

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The Lord said to me, “Faithless Israel is more righteous than unfaithful Judah.”
Jeremiah 3:11 (NIV)

There is a stretch of my life journey that I look back on and call “the dark years.” I was angry for a number of reasons, and underneath the anger was an internal struggle with God, with myself, and with my circumstances. In this struggle, I acted out in unhealthy ways.

A therapist friend of mine says that “everyone is having a conversation with Life,” and I have found this to be true in my own experience. During my dark years, I wasn’t ignoring God or pretending He didn’t exist. I was in constant conversation with God. Like a rebellious teenager, I screamed at God. I threw tantrums. I argued with God, I swore at God, and I defiantly did things I was forbidden to do out of spite. And, when my attitude and actions led to really painful places, I found myself walking in the shoes of the Prodigal. I was humbled. I was broken. I was ashamed of the pain I had caused my loved ones, and I returned to the arms of my Heavenly Father and learned what “amazing grace” really means.

The dark years came to mind as I read today’s chapter. It begins with God addressing the southern kingdom of Judah. Judah couldn’t make up their mind regarding their relationship with God. Of their 20 monarchs, nine of them were somewhat faithful to God, while 11 of them followed after the local pagan gods. I can’t help but think of the words of the prophet Elijah from a couple hundred years before Jeremiah: “How long will you waver between two opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal is God, follow him.”

I have to remember that Jeremiah is addressing the people of Judah amidst the religious reforms enforced by King Josiah. The people of Judah are pining for their idols despite the fact that the king has destroyed and outlawed them. They feel no shame about this. Theirs is a life of duplicity and wavering. They want it both ways. They contend to have an open marriage with God. “I should be able to make love to my pagan idols, and God should love and bless me anyway.”

God then tells Jeremiah to consider the northern kingdom of Israel. At the time of Jeremiah’s prophetic sermon, Israel had been destroyed by the Assyrians and led into captivity a hundred years before. Unlike Judah, Israel didn’t waver. They wholeheartedly went after idolatry. Not one of their 19 kings was faithful to God. Like me in my dark years, they flipped off their Heavenly Father in oppositional defiance. And, then they hit rock bottom thanks to the Assyrian Empire.

Now God speaks to Jeremiah as a frustrated yet loving Father. He sees Israel’s outright rebellion as more honest than the duplicitous wavering of her sister, Judah. God uses two different Hebrew adjectives. Israel was “faith-less” (there was no attempt to even pretend they cared) while Judah was “un-faithful” (they toyed and pretended they would be faithful, only to betray God over and over again). Father God then has Jeremiah face the leftover remnants of His people in the north and pleads for the Prodigal to return.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself mulling over my dark years. Ugh! I honestly see the shadow of both Judah and Israel in my own oppositional defiance, neither of them good. But today’s chapter has me contemplating the fact that there is something that God respects in those sinners who don’t even pretend to care about Him in contrast to those who say they love Him and then live as if they love the world and the things of the world. I see this in the way Jesus hung out with the outright “sinners” like Israel while directing His sharpest criticism and condemnation on the “religious” leaders who, like Judah, pretended they were faithful, but whom Jesus described as “whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of the bones of the dead and everything unclean.”

I head into the day with this episode from Matthew 9:11-13 resonating in my spirit:

Later when Jesus was eating supper at Matthew’s house with his close followers, a lot of disreputable characters came and joined them. When the Pharisees saw him keeping this kind of company, they had a fit, and lit into Jesus’ followers. “What kind of example is this from your Teacher, acting cozy with crooks and misfits?”

Jesus, overhearing, shot back, “Who needs a doctor: the healthy or the sick? Go figure out what this Scripture means: ‘I’m after mercy, not religion.’ I’m here to invite outsiders, not coddle insiders.”

Featured Image: Prodigal Son by Thomas Hart Benton

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

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Not of this World

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Not of this World (CaD Rev 12) – Wayfarer

“Therefore rejoice, you heavens
    and you who dwell in them!
But woe to the earth and the sea,
    because the devil has gone down to you!
He is filled with fury,
    because he knows that his time is short.”
Revelation 12:12 (NIV)

Several years ago I gave a message among my local gathering of Jesus’ followers in which I talked about how the writers of the James Bond film, Skyfall, subtly tapped into themes of the Great Story in order to make Bond into a Christ-like figure (you can watch/listen here). I shared that morning, as I have many times in these chapter-a-day posts, that all good stories are reflections of the Great Story.

That came to mind this morning as I meditated on today’s chapter. The images of John’s vision like those in today’s chapter sound like some kind of bad acid trip to most modern readers, but to learned Hebrews and Gentiles of John’s day, they echo themes and images from familiar mythologies. Both the Greeks and Egyptians had myths of dragons or serpents chasing mothers to kill their young.

Once again this morning, I set aside the minute details in order to consider the larger picture being presented in Revelation and in today’s chapter. The Great Story told from Genesis to Revelation is ultimately a story of good and evil on a grand spiritual scale. I have observed along my spiritual journey that as an earthbound human who views reality through my brain and five physical senses, it is difficult to comprehend, let alone understand, what Jesus taught: that there is a spiritual reality that is not only “not of this world” but also more “real” than this world. I find it interesting that those who have had neath-death experiences in which they experienced heaven commonly relate two things: First, they didn’t want to come back. Second, they don’t have the vocabulary to express how amazing and how “real” it was. Having been to heaven, they realize how our earthly “reality” is but a shadow world in comparison to what awaits us in eternity.

Today’s chapter has two main characters. A woman “clothed” with the sun and moon and twelve stars on her head. Hebrew mythology and prophecy often referred to Israel as a “mother.” Joseph’s dream was of the sun, moon, and eleven stars (his brothers, the tribes of Israel) bowing down to him. The second main character is the dragon, which is also a recurring image in the prophets and the psalms, and the text tells us that it represents Satan.

The overarching theme of the entire Great Story is established in Genesis 3. Satan temps Adam and Eve. They are expelled from the Garden, cursed to an earthly life, and to suffer death. God establishes enmity between Satan and the woman, especially her offspring whom Satan will attack. God prophesies that Satan will bruise the heel of woman’s offspring, but He will crush Satan’s head.

Today’s chapter is a re-telling of this great spiritual conflict that lies at the heart of the entire Great Story. Once again, the story of the Hebrew exodus from Egypt is a microcosm of this grand spiritual conflict. The Dragon pursues the Woman to the wilderness (like the Egyptians chasing after the Hebrews). The Dragon attempts to stop the woman with water (like the Egyptians trying to pin the Hebrews at the Red Sea). The earth swallows up the waters (like the Red Sea swallowing up the Egyptian army).

In the grand spiritual conflict, Satan has always been seen as the ultimate heavenly accuser and prosecutor (cf. Job 1-2). In today’s chapter, as the end of the Great Story draws near, there is a spiritual battle in heaven and Satan is thrown down to earth with his hoard of fallen angels. Furious, Satan goes after “the rest of her offspring” which would, presumably, be the people of God left on the earth. This is, again, the overarching theme of John’s Revelation; The great spiritual conflict of heaven is coming to a climactic head on the earth.

In the quiet this morning, I come back to the familiar themes of the Great Story and all the good stories that echo them. Good and evil, the threat of death and the desire for immortality, the grand struggle, the threat and fear of a dark ending before the grand moment of eucatastrophe. There are many who revere Jesus and His teaching, claiming to respect His teaching as a guide for living on this earthly journey. As a disciple of Jesus, I find that His teaching for living and relating to others on this earth was ultimately not about this earth, but about His kingdom that He said is “not of this world.” John’s visions are glimpses of it, just as Jesus referenced it on His way to the cross:

A large number of people followed [Jesus], including women who mourned and wailed for him. Jesus turned and said to them, “Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, ‘Blessed are the childless women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!’ Then

“‘they will say to the mountains, “Fall on us!”
and to the hills, “Cover us!”’

For if people do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry?”
Luke 23:27-31 (NIV)

And so, I proceed on this another day of an earthly journey, believing not just that Jesus offered a helpful guide for behavior in this temporal, earthly existence, but that He came as part of a Great Story, pointing me to a Kingdom that is more real and beyond description with the limitations of human vocabulary. In fact, it might seem like an acid trip to my human understanding (based on friends who’ve told me about their acid trips). I choose to believe that my story is a part of that Story in ways that equally lie beyond my human comprehension.

Note: I’m taking tomorrow and July 4th off. See you back here on Tuesday of next week.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.

Chapter-a-Day

Knowing and Not Knowing

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Knowing and Not Knowing (CaD Gen 46) – Wayfarer

[God said to Israel] “I am God, the God of your father,” he said. “Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for I will make you into a great nation there. I will go down to Egypt with you, and I will surely bring you back again. And Joseph’s own hand will close your eyes.”
Genesis 46:3-4 (NIV)

When I was a kid, many years before Top Gun was a thing, I wanted to be a Naval aviator. I’m not sure how this developed in me, though I’m pretty sure the television show Black Sheep Squadron and the movie Midway were somewhat involved. I wore a sailor cap all the time. I read my Uncle Bud’s Navy manual, and I corresponded with him about his experiences in the Navy during the Korean War. Those are letters I regretfully did not save.

At some point after what seemed like a long period of correspondence in those days, Uncle Bud said he wanted to have a talk with me. He wanted to give me a reality check regarding what life was really like for him in the Navy. He wanted to share with me the things I was not asking him about as I looked at his stories through rose-colored aviator goggles.

My desire to be a Naval aviator quickly died. I consider this a good thing in retrospect.

In today’s chapter, God speaks directly to Israel and assures the elderly patriarch that he should take his entire family and all that he has and go to his son in Egypt. God even foreshadows what will happen next. The clan is going to grow exponentially in Egypt. And God will bring Jacob back. There’s a double meaning in this. Yes, Jacob’s body will be returned and buried in the family tomb. God is also foreshadowing the next chapters in the Great Story when God will deliver and lead the “nation” of Israel’s descendants out of Egypt, through the wilderness, and to the Promised Land in the book Exodus.

What stood out to me, as one who knows the story well, is that God omits any mention of Israel’s descendants being enslaved in Egypt for hundreds of years as they become “a great nation there.” Looking at this as an isolated incident on a merely human level, this seems unjust and unfair. Yet, along my spiritual journey, I have personally learned and observed that struggles, trials, and difficulties are requisites for spiritual maturity in this life. This is not hidden. It’s stated directly in multiple places in multiple ways.

If I had forewarning of every difficulty I have personally faced on my life journey, I’m quite certain I would have opted out of most of them, just like I opted out of my childhood dream of being a Naval aviator. In hindsight, I see now that opting out would have been to my detriment in so many of my life’s struggles. Yes, I would have avoided painfully difficult circumstances, but I also would have avoided the wisdom and spiritual maturity that was forged in me through them. That, I realize from my current waypoint on life’s road, would have been eternally detrimental.

In the quiet this morning, I find myself looking back and being grateful for both stretches of difficulty on life’s road as well as times of deliverance and protection. They are equally important chapters in my story, just as they are in the Great Story. I find it an important reminder as the deliverance of Israel’s clan leads into hundreds of years of slavery between the final chapter of Genesis and the first chapter of Exodus.

If you know anyone who might be encouraged by today’s post, please share.